goods works the Angells will rejoyce upon it in heaven the Faithfull will be edifyd upon earth Devills will rage for envy in hell The eternal Father will adopt you for his child the Son will make you one of his members the holy Ghost will dwell in you as in his Temple The B. Trinity will adorne you with a triple Crown they will make you happy by Beatifical Vision by perfect Fruition and by possession of eternal Goods Amen DISCOURS XLVIII of Purgatory 1. Though there be but one only Church in the world yet this may be divided into three Parts or Orders which according to their divers conditions beare different names and Titles That which reignes with God in Heaven and happily passed from the Combate to the Victory and from Victory to Tryumph is called the Tryumphant Church That which fights yet upon Earth and environed with Devills and with Sinners labours to vanquish the one and to convert the other is called Militant And that which Expiates its sins in the flames of Purgatory and satisfys the justice of God by the greatness of its paines is called Suffrante Of this I shal now treat and that the Living and the Dead may reap profit by this Discours I divide it into two Parts In the first I will shew that there is a Purgatory in which souls do suffer In the second we will see by what means we may and ought to help those poor soules 2. Beati mortui qui in Domino moriuntur Blessed are they who dye in our Lord who die so perfect in Faith and Charity who depart Apoc. 14. 13. hence so purged by true and entire Penance that they are free from all spot of sin and not lyable to any punishment due to it But they that are not so pure and clean as so many are not must necessarily feel the severity of Gods justice which leaves no sin unpunished and must be purged before they can be blessed as Scriptures Fathers and reason make evident to every vnbyassed understanding In the second Book of the Machabees we read that Iudas Machabeus that valiant Champion who was high Priest or chief Bishop of the Church and Defender of the true Faith and Religion sent 12. thousand Drachmes to Hierusalem that sacrifice might be offered for the Dead And the Authour of the book concludes It is a holy and salutary cogitation to pray for the dead that they may be delivered from their sins And this was the general practise of the Church as appears by their set form of Office for the Dead in their book Mahzor translated and set forth by Bishop Genebrard Munster and Fagius in Annot upon 14. of Deut Whitaker lib. 1. cont Dureum foâ— 81. 1. Ep. c. 4. This custome is yet observed by the Iews which is so evident that Protestants themselves confess it S. Peter in the new Testament furnishes us with a strong proof of Purgatory in the third chapter of his first Epistle He teaches us that the Son of God descended and Preached to them that were in prison who had been incredulous sometime in the days of Noah This passage connot be applyd to the Fathers that were detain'd in Limbo nor to the damned that were lockt up in hell For the first never were incrudulous as were those to whom the Son of God did speak The second deserv'd not that IESUS CHRIST should preach or Evangelize as the text says good news to them or should mitigate their torments by the happiness of his presence Since according to the Scripture in hell there is no redemption It remaines then that He speaks of the Souls in Purgatory and of those particularly that gave not credit to the preaching of Noah who nevertheless being moved by the deluge and by the present perill called upon God and converted themselves to him by penance But to Expiate the paines due to their sins were doom'd to prison and to punishment until the comming of the Redeemer who preached to them the grace of Redemption drew them out of prison and led them with Him into Heaven S Paul says That he who upon the foundation of faith makes a building 1. cor 3. 12. of Gold silver and precious stones That is of solid and perfect vertues He shal receive reward but he that hath made a building of wood hay stubble that is of imperfections or venial sins Aug. in Psal 37. Psal 6 shal be saved but by fire S. Austin explicates of Purgatory this text and cites moreover to the same purpose these words of David Lord reprove me not in your fury and correct me not in your anger Lord says David according to the explication of Saint Austin permit me not to be of the number of those to whom you will say Go ye accursed into Eternal fire and purify me in this life so that I may not need to be purged by the fire that corrects those lib. de Monog c. 10. who shal be saved Tertullian in the second age of the Church speaking of the devotions of Widdows of his time says that every year on the anniversary of their husbands death they made offerings for them and that they prayed God to give them refreshment they believed then that they were in paines We might alledge many other ancient Fathers But there is no need to cite them since lib. 3. Institut c. 5. n. 10. Calvin himself confesseth that the holy Fathers who lived a 1300 years before his time prayed for the Dead and that which he answers to this is the ancient Fathers were men who were deceived as if he were an Angel or rather a God that could not Erre But if we should have nither Scripture nor Tradition for this Verity yet common sense would teach it For let us suppose that there is a man as there may be who having committed blasphemies murders adulteries and other sins in great number and being upon his death-bed repents converts himself to God and dyes whither shal his soul go Not to hell for God never reiects a contrite and humbled heart and He hath promised mercy to all that shal conuert themselves by true and sincere penance Shal he go strait to heauen and as strait as one that hath serued God well and kept his commandements all his life what appearance of it and where would be the verity of this word of S. Paul a man shal reap that which he hath sown where would be Gal. 6. Psal 61 Rom. 2. 6. Apoc. 22 Matt. 16. the truth of this which the Royal Prophet the Apostle the Evangelist and our Saviour himself hath sayd God will render to every one according to his workes We need not but consider what is God and what is sin to avow a Purgatory in which an imperfect soul is purifyd before she may or would be pesented to God who is Purity it self 3. Wherefore a soul in Purgatory murmures not she complains not of too much rigour on the contrary she embraces
of CHRIST is Catholick that is to say Vniversall or generall and the Apostles by putting this word oblige us to follow that Church whose Faith and Religion is receiv'd and publickly profest the longest Time by the most Persons and in most Places and so the Faith of the Roman Church hath been 16. Read but the Annales of Baronius or of Gualterus or The longuest Time the works of Bellarmin or Coccius and You will see that ever-since the Apostles the Church hath had from age to age the same Articles of Faith which the Roman Church teaches at this present Reformers confess that during the first four hundred years the Roman was the true Church if this Present were new they ought to shew who was the first Authour of this novellty what was the new doctrin that was taught in what time and in what place fâ—om what Church the Roman did seperate when she embraced this new doctrin and who were they that opposed this novellty These things are noted in every little alteration of Religion and one cannot shew them in the great pretended changes of the Faith of the Roman Church 17 All those that have been converted to the Faith of CHRIST By the most persons and have embraced Christian Religion have always taken the Roman and were converted by Romanists Other Religions convert not infidells and have never extended the Empire of IESUS in any Province of the Earth 18. We must put out our Eyes and burn all Histories not In most Places to see that the Roman Church only hath been extended in all the places where IESUS CHRIST is or hath been adored and that no other Congregation of Christians has ever had publick exercise of Religion throughout the world But we may read in S. Ireneus Tertullian S. Cyprian and S. Athanasius that in their times the Catholick Church was already in all the inhabited Earth and this in accomplishment of what David had often foretold saying that the Reigne and Empire of JESUS CHRIST that is to say CHRISTS Church should be extended throughout all the earth I wil give thee Gentills for thy inheritance and thy possession the ends of the Earth He Psal 2. Psal 71. shal rule from sea to sea and from the river even to the end of the round world 19. Follow then the Faith of the Romane and Catholick Church since these Notes evidently agree to Her and to no other church Heb. 11. 6. and since with out true and entire Faith t is impossible to please God 20 Have and hold inviolable Vnity with this Church since all Faith without this Vnity will not save You There is but one Vniversall Church out of which nobody is saved sayd the great Council of Lateran consisting of a 1215. Fathers And S. Paul Gallatians 5. 20 himself does teach expressly that not Sects only but also Dissentions Divisions or Seperations shal not possess the kingdom of God Wherefore S. Cyprian in the book of Vnity says Whosoever seperats from the true Church is excluded from the promises of the Church and who hath abandoned the Church of CHRIST shal never com to receive the recompences of CHRIST He is a stranger he is prophane he is an enemie of God for He connot have God for his Father who hath not the Church for his Mother S. Chrysostom testifys that separation from the In Ep. ad Ephes. 4. p. 822. de papt cont Don. lib. 1. c. 8. lib. 2. c. 6. Church or dividing of it is no less sin then falling into heresy nay S. Austin holds that it is greater then that of infidelity and Idolatry and for proof of what he says he alleadges the example of Core Dathan and Abiron and other Schismaticks of the ancient Testament who were sent living into hell and punished more rigorously than Idolaters who doubts says he that this was committed more criminally which was revenged more severely But he says things yet more terrible for he assures us that all they that are not in the true Church though they live extraordinarily well tho they give great alms and also shed their Ep. 152. and. lib. 4. de Bap. blood for the love of IESUS CHRIST if they die out of the Church nothing will profit them but shal be damn'd eternally All those that were out of the Arke of Noah which was a figure of the Church perished by the deluge Only they that laboured in the vineyard reciv'd the recompence of the pennie that is eternal life Members that remain not united to the body cannot have life Branches cut of from the tree cannot bring-forth fruit IESUS CHRIST is the Saviour of his Body which is the Church He is the Espouse of the Church and cannot have or acknowledg other children then those of his Spouse 21. Let us then resolve to live and die in the bosome of the Catholick or Roman Church There we may avoid damnation there we shal be assisted to obtain Salvation For there is Communion af Saints that is communication of good works and of prayers There then every one may help his neighbor the Living may succour also the Dead in Purgatory and the Saints in Heaven can help by their merits and their prayers sinners upon Earth Amen DISCOURS XIII OF THE TENTH ARTICLE The Forgiveness of Sins 1. HE that should know well the monstrous nature and malice of Sin the ingratitude impudence and insolence of the sinner the infinite Greatnes Sanctity and Majesty of him against whom it is committed and should also know what the Scripture expressly tells us that a God is thereby irritated exasperated put into anger and fury against the sinner such an one I say could not by any light of reason hope for pardon it would seem to him impossible that sins committed against God should be remitted and he would need the light of Faith to believe that a sinner may obtain remission of them Who would ever think that a God who hath need of none who had not respect to the celestial Principalities and who spared not so great a number of noble Spirits but condemn'd them all without exception to eternal flames would shew favour to worms of the earth to so ungratefull and base creatures after they have so many and so many times offended Him multiplying sins upon sins and reiterating the same sins Here then we have need of Faith and therefore the Apostles make us to believe that God will pardon sins and since they except none that He will remit all sorts of them how ever great and enormous they may be by the Sacrament of Baptisme and after by Absolution as often as we shal do true penance for them 2. Here we meet with an error and one of the most great and most pernicious of some Reformers They say that it belongs not to a sinner to absolve others from their sins and that it is an injury to the Son of God to ask pardon of our sins of any other On this
friends who may receive you into the eternal Tabernacles Amen DISCOURS L. Of Holy Orders HItherto we have treated of Sacraments which were instituted to sanctify men in particular now we speak of the Sacrament of Order instituted for the General good publick Order Government and Ministery of the Church And becaus Dissenters deny it to be a Sacrament we will shew in the first place that 't is a true one Secondly we will consider what this sacred Signe does signify and in the third place the Documents we ought to draw from thence for the glory of God the Salvation of our Souls and the guidance of our lives 1. A Sacrament is an exteriour and sensible signe by which grace of the holy Ghost is given him that receives it worthily Now the Apostle S. Paul and after him the general Councell of Calcedon say expressly that grace of the holy Ghost is conferr'd in Ordination by imposition of hands Neglect not the grace that is in 1. Tim. 4. 14. 2. Tim. 1. 6. Concil calced an 451. Act. 1 5. can 2 thee which is given thee by Prophecie with imposition of the hands of Priesthood I admonish thee that thou resussitate the grace of God which is in thee by the imposition of my hands Hence the Councells and ancient Fathers have always acknowledged Ordination for a true and proper Sacrament and therefore in the general Councell of Florence this is numbred with them both Grecians and Latins approving it I might Fill pages with Citations of the holy Fathers But this of great S Austine will suffice He in his second book against the Epistle of Parmenean proves against the Donatists that the Sacrament of Order cannot be lost becaus Baptisme cannot Let them Explicate says He how the Sacrament of the the Baptized cannot be lost and the Sacrament of the Orderer may be For if both of them be Sacraments of which nobody doubts why cannot that be lost if this may be Here he calls Orders a Sacrament He shews it to be a proper and true one by comparing it whith Baptisme He assures us that nobody doubted of this Verity and if S. Austin may be credited not only all the Writers of his time but also all the Faithfull did believe the same 2. This external and sacred signe expresses two singular favours which Ecclesiasticks receive from God in their consecration The first is the highest dignity in the World For to a Priest is given Power over the natural Body of IESUS CHRIST to consectate and offer and distribute it and over his myistical Body which is the Church to remit sins administer Sacraments and to do the sacred functions of the characters imprinted in him A Power so much more excellent eminent and higher than other Dignities as the Spirit than the Body Heaven than Earth Divine things than humane and as Eternal than temporal S. Paul says 't is certaine by the consent of all the world Heb. 7. 4. that he who hath right to give his Benediction to another is more noble and high than he sine ulla contradictione quod minus est a meliore benedicitur But a Priest gives his Benediction to Princes Kings and Emperours his Dignity then is more high S. Chrysostome exhorting Priests to refuse Absolution and Communion S. Chry. Hom. 3. in Matt. Hom. ad 60. pop Antioch to all that are unworthy though they be Princes or Kings says to them you ought to do it and you can do it you ought to do it otherwise IESUS CHRIST will exact of you an account of his Blood and will punish you most terribly You can do it for your Power is greater than that of Princes of this world If you suspect the Testimony of this Saint becaus he was a Prelate of the Church hear the Prince of the world The Emperor Basil in an oration he made to his people in the eighth general Baron An 869. nn 55. Councell It belongs not to us Laymen to medle with the things of the Church it belongs to Priests and Prelats who have power to sanctify us to open heaven to us and shut it against us to bind us or els to to absolve us Our condition is to be fed as sheep to be sanctifyd conducted and unbound You will not thinke the words of these Great men strange or that they exagerate the Greatness of Priestly Power if you consider that it surpasses the spiritual Power as well as the temporal divine as well as humane For popes who excell in Authority and Grandeure if considered not as as Priests are less in Power than these For the Power of Priests extends upon the natural Body of IESUS CHRIST and that of Popes upon his mystical Body only which is his Church and therefore as much as his natural Body exceeds his mystical so much the Priestly Power surmounts the Papal S. John Baptist who surpassed all men who was the greatest that had risen among the sons of women for his sanctity Yet was less in Power than the least Priest of the Church He shewed with his fingar IESUS CHRIST But Priests produce Him in their hands and give Him for nourishment to others He only diposed the people to penance and Priests absolve them from their sins The Angells who though they can do great things upon creatures of the world they cannot put Christ at their Will upon the Altar but are content to adore love and admire Him there And Priests by vertue of their character have this Power and can offer Him in an unbloody Sacrifice for the salvation of the Living and the Dead 3. This Power of Priests being so great God out of his goodness adds in their ordination another favour to it He whose workes are perfect giving power gives likewise those things that are requisite for the legitimate and convenient use of it He replenishes Priests with abundant grace to make them worthy of their Character to exercise well the functions of it and to rendet them capable to sanctify the faithfull Noli negligere gratiam quae data est tibi per impositionem manuum Presbiterij Idoneos nos fecit Ministros 4. These particular favours which IESUS does to Priests admonish us of the Honour we are oblig'd to render them Honour God with all thy soul and honour Priests says Ecclesiasticus And S. Paul Priests that do well their duty deserve double honor 'T is by them says S. Hierome that we are converted and made Christians by them we are received into the Church by them we are delivered from our sins we reenter into the grace and favour of God by them we receive his blessings enjoy the precious Body of IESUS and offer to God the dreadfull sacrifice by them in fine the Sacraments are administred and the imperial heaven is opened to us We must not neglect them who are the Judges of Kings in the process of eternity them who the Prophet Malachy says are the Angells of our Lord. Malac 2.